Apparatus for the continuous temporary storage of measurement values

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for the continuous temporary storage of a number of measurement values, comprising ring-shaped disks at which rims of tongues are formed, said ring-shaped disks being reduced as regards their internal and external diameter in the manner of a row of steps and being concentrically arranged and in axial spacing behind one another at an at least substantially truncated conical-shaped portion of a revolving element. There are provided support portions comprising ring-shaped disks which are also reduced with respect to their internal- and external diameter in the manner of a row of steps and being concentrically arranged and at an axial spacing behind one another at the inner surface of a transparent housing portion. Devices including individual respective control elements are accommodated in recesses at the inside of the transparent housing portion, each said recess being located at the region of an interruption of the associated ringshaped disk forming the associated support portion.

United States Patent [191 Amsler June 4,1974

[ APPARATUS FOR THE CONTINUOUS TEMPORARY STORAGE OF MEASUREMENT VALUES Max Amsler, Lerchenweg 2, 2500 Biel, Switzerland [22] Filed: July 5, 1973 [2i] Appl. No.: 376,802

[76] Inventor:

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data July 7 1972 Switzerland l022Q/72 [52] US. Cl 346/21, 346/137 [51] Int. Cl. GOld 15/28 [58] Field of Search 346/2l, 18, I45, 137

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3/l96l Amsler 346/2l X 3/1970 Vogtlin 346/l37 X Primary Examiner-Joseph W. Hartary Attorney, Agent, or FirmWerner W. Klee'man [5 7] ABSTRACT An apparatus for the continuous temporary storage of a number of measurement values, comprising ringshaped disks at which rims of tongues are formed, said ring-shaped disks being reduced as regards their internal and external diameter in the manner of a row of steps and being concentrically arranged and in axial spacing behind one another at an at least substantially truncated conical-shaped portion of a revolving element. There are provided support portions comprising ring-shaped disks which are also reduced with respect 7 to their internaland external diameter in the manner of a row of steps and being concentrically arranged and at an axial spacing behind one another at. the inner surface of a transparent housing portion. Devices including individual respective control elements are accommodated in recesses at the inside of the transparent housing portion, each said recess being located at the region of an interruption of the associated ring-shaped disk forming the associated support portion.

5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of apparatus for the continuous temporary or momentary storage of a number of measurement values or magnitudes, wherein at a common revolving element there are arranged a number of concentric rims and specifically for each measurement value one such concentric rim of radial, elastically flexible tongues, and at each such tongue rim formed at the periphery of a ring-shaped disk formed of elastic plastic material of a thickness less than 1/10 mm, there is provided a support portion fixedly seated upon a transparent housing portion, the support portion having a support surface extending along the path of the free tongue ends. Further, the support surface is interrupted at one location of its periphery. At the region of this interruption there is provided for each tongue rim a control element which is adjustable between two terminal positions, and in one terminal position such control element bends-out the tongues which travel past the interruption of the support portion and force such in the flexedor bent condition to slide away over or below the support surface until they again arrive at the interruption, whereas in the other terminal position such control element does not influence the tongues which move therepast, so that such tongues can move beneath or above the support portion and along the latter.

Now in my Swiss Patent No. 340,362, and corresponding to my US. Pat. No. 2,975,016, granted Mar. l4, 1961, there is described such general type of apparatus in which the revolving element is a cylindrical drum having a number of rims of tongues which are arranged in spaced relation behind one another. The associated control or switch elements are each mounted at a respective'pivotably mounted armature of an electromagnet, all of the electromagnets being accommodated in a lateral extension or bulged portion of the housing. only the one tongue rim which is located behind the floor of a transparent pot-shaped housing portion can be viewed from the front and thus only the indication which is provided by such tongue rim can be read-off at the front. On the other hand, the five tongue rims which are situated therebehind are only visible through the jacket wall of the pot-shaped housing portion and therefore the indications or readings provided by such tongue rims only can be read with great diffi culty. Furthermore, the lateral extension or bulged-out portion of the housing is cumbersome for a great many types of mounting or placement of the equipment. Moreover, it interferes with an esthetic appearance of the equipment.

SUMMARY OF THE lNVENTlON Hence, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus for the continuous temporary storage of measurement values which is not associated with the aforementioned drawbacks and limitations of the prior art construction discussed above.

Another and more specific object of the present invention relates to an improved apparatus for the continuous temporary storage of measurement values in a manner which is extremely reliable, and wherein there are overcome the aforementioned limitations of the above-discussed prior art construction.

Now in order to implement these and still further ob- 5 jects of the invention, which will become more readily apparent as the description proceeds, the apparatus of the previously mentioned type is manifested by the features that:

a. the ring disks, at which there are formed the rims of tongues, as concerns their internaland external di ameter, are reduced in the form of a row of steps and are concentrically secured and in an axial spacing behind one another at an at least approximately truncated conical-shaped portion of the revolving element;

12. the associated support portions consist of ringshaped disks which are reduced with respect to their internaland external diameter in the manner previously disclosed above in conjunction with feature (a) as well as being secured concentrically and in axial spacing behind one another at the inner surface of the transparent housing portion; and

0. there are provided devices, to which belong the individual control elements, in associated recesses located at the region of the interruption of the associated ring-shaped disk forming the support portion and at the inside of the transparent housing portion.

It should be readily understood that with such construction all of the toothed rims and therefore all of the indications or readings provided by the same of the temporarily stored measurement values can be visually determined and recognized by easy viewing thereof during a single glance (if desired possibly by taking a photograph). Thepreviously mentioned lateral housing bulges are dispensed with.

Such apparatus is not only capable of being constructed as a vehicle tachograph, analogous to that which has been illustrated and described in conjunction with the aforementioned patents, but also can be employed for the temporary storage of other measurement values than the vehicle speed; for instance for the distribution of ON" and -OFF conditions of the most different devices or machines connected with such ap' paratus.

According to a preferred constructional embodiment, it is contemplated that the ring-shaped disks are formed of elastic plastic material, at the periphery of each of which there is formed a respective one of the tongue rims, and with regard to their internal and external diameter these ring-shaped disks are reduced in the manner of a row of steps that the inner diameter of one such ring-shaped disk is equal to the outer diameter of the next smaller ring-shaped disk. This construction renders possible a great saving in the elastic flexible plastic foil ('which is very expensive) during stampingout of the ring-shaped disks, at which there can be formed the tongue rims, since all such ring-shaped disks can be obtained as part of a single foil disk.

Further, the ring-shaped disks forming the supports or support portions are preferably each provided at their viewing side with a respective ring scale. Such scale ring disks can be fabricated in large numbers rela- 'tively inexpensively with modern production tech-- transparent housing portion, at which housing portion the pin is mounted coaxially with regard-to the revolv- -ing'element. Furthermore, the pin or pivot together with the arms of the evaluation device which are permanently mounted thereat can be detachably inserted into 'a blindhole bore of the transparent housing portion, In the case of a vehicle tachograph there can be omitted for the commercially available constructions of evaluation deviceysince such is usually only then required for exact evaluation purposes. This is only then, however, the'case when the vehicle equipped with the tachograph is involved in an accident. The police or other authorities who then become involved with the accident can mount the evaluation device in its possession with the pin or plug simply at the relevant vehicle tachograph in order to subsequently carry out thejexact evaluation. For the majority of vehicle ownersthe possession of 'th i e evaluation device is unnecessary.

' ERIE .Zi jEscfR PT'ioN or THE DRAWING he inverition will be better u'nderstood and objects I e r ftihan those set forth above, will become apparent hen. consideration is given to the following detailed escriptionthereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates partially inelevational view and partially incross-sectional viewa preferred exemplary embodiment of vehicletachograph;

.FIG. 2 is a 'view looking in the direction of the arrow II'of FIG. 1, showirig details of the-arrangementofFlGa FIG. 3 illustrates further dfetailsof the arrangement It 1 f o'ETAi'LEo oEscRiPTioN THE PREFERRED I, EMBODIMENTS l )e scribin g now the drawing, the illustrated exem-- plary embodiment of recording apparatus, e.-g. tachograph will be understood to comprisea housing orcase composed of the housing portion l'formedffor'ine stance, of glass fiber-reinforcedplastic and the housing .portion 2 composed of, for instance, glass-clear or transparent plas'tic. In the housing portion 1 there is fixedly seated the head 3d of a threaded bolt 3 which serves to-attach the tachograph at a portion 4 of the ve- [can consist of brief indexing or switching steps, by

means of a small electric motor-transmission unit or other suitable drive, as generally indicated by .reference character 15, so that such rotor carries out one revolution in, for instance,' 30 hours.

The rotor 8 is. provided, with four flat ring-shaped or annular surfaces at its generally conical outer or jacket surface and at'such four flat ring-shaped surfaces there is fixedly adhesively bonded a respective flat ringshaped or annular disk 16, l7, l8 and 19 formed of an elastic plastic material, such as for instance MY; LAR, the thickness of which is less than'l/ I0 mm. At a flat ring-shaped or annular surface er the rotor 9 there is adhesively bonded a ring-shaped or annular disk 20 of a thickness less than l/IO mm. and also fomied of such .plastic material. All of these ring shaped'disks 16 to 20 are reduced asre'gards their. in-

ternaland external diameters in the manner of-a row of steps, so that the inner diameteriof one such rin shaped disk' is equal to'the outer diameterdf thefnext smaller ring-shapeddisk', as best recognized by refer- .fringt o FIG.- 1.-All of these disks 1,6 to 20 are provided I at their periphery with a gapless rim of radially depend ing tonguesl6a, 17a, 1 8a, 19 ,a*an d goa'respectively'." Along the path of the free 'tongue-@ndsthere i spro vided for each tongue rim aflat support ring orsupport surface 21,22, 23, 24 and;253rfespectively, which is hi cle by means of the nut members 5. A plate 6' is fixedly seated between the housing portions 1 and'2, this plate 6 being secured fby-means of-a screw 7 or the like at the housing portion'eyelet or boss la. With the I exception of, among other things, a bowed-out or extended portion 2a and an inner stepped recess 2b of the housing portion 2 located at the region of the bowed portion 2a, and furthermore, the eyelets or bosses such as 1a at the housing portion 1 and the aligned inner recesses 2c, lb, such housing portions 1 and 2 have a generally rotationally symmetrical internal and external shape with regardto a common axis. The aforementioned axis coincides with the common axis of rotation of a first rotor 8 and a second rotor 9. Moreover, the major jacket or outer surface portions of the housing portion 2 and the rotor 8 are conical. The bearing parts l0, l1 and 12 serve for the rotatable and axial nonmovable mounting of the rotor 8. The rotor 9 is rotatably mounted at the rotor 8 and is retained so as to be axially non-movable between such rotor 8 and the plate 6.

fixedly bonded at an associated ring-shaped sqifae or I the transparent hopsing portion. .2, v .andea ch' s ch flat support ringi-s interrupted atorie locationjofperiphery, for instance as depicted for supportring 25 in FIG. I 3. These support ringsZl to 25 which are formed, for

instance, of anodized aluminum sheet metal "are also a reduced as concerns their diameter-in the mariner'of a row of steps. At the-"region'of eachy'such interruption there is provided for each tongue rim a control element T 26,27, 28, 29 and 30 respectively, which can be shiftedf" between two terminal positions, and whicii'jn the one terminal position bend-out the tongues which move past the interruption of the associated support ring and" force such in the bent or deflected condition to move away over (or also according to a modification is desired below) the support surface of the associated support ring until they'again arrive at the interruption. whereas in the other terminal position the tongues which move therepast remain uninfluenced i.e. are not bent, so that they can move below or above the support portion or surface and past such. This function has been depicted for the tongues 18a in FIG. 2 and has already been described in detail in the previously mentioned Swiss and United States patents, so that further discussion thereof is not believed to be necessary. The control elements 26 to 29 are secured to a respective pivotal armature 31, 32, 33, 34 of an associated electromagnet E defining the respective switch mechanism. The stator iron 35 of the stators with the coils 36 are each accommodated in a small housing 37 which is mounted at the pivot pin or journal of the associated armature. All of these housings 37 are fixedly retained in the associated and appropriate sections of the recess 2b which is located beneath the bowed portion or bead 2a of the housing portion 2. That of the coil 36, which is associated with the control element 29, is connected with an inexpensive electrical clock or timer (not particularly shown, for instance arranged at component and schematically indicated by reference character 100), which delivers thereto, for instance each second half-second, current, in order that the control or switch element 29 can be moved in intervals of V2 second from the one into the other terminal position. The tongues 19a at the ring-shaped disk 19 may serve to temporarily record the speed of the vehicle. The coils 36 which are associated with the control or switching elements 26, 27 and 28 respectively, arev for instance connected to the brake light, the vehicle indicator turn left signal light, and the vehicle indicator turn right" signal light, respectively, for temporarily recording such functions during, for instance, the last 300 meters of vehicle travel, which it is to be understood is strictly an arbitrarily selected value.

On the other hand, the control element 30, which is associated with the ring-shaped disk and the tongues 20a thereof secured to the rotor 9, has a drive connection, which will be described in greater detail hereinafter, with the rotor 8 which is driven from the tachometer shaft, so that it can only assume its one terminal position when this rotor effectively receives a rotational movement in other words when the vehicle is moving otherwise it assumes its other terminal position. The rim of tongues 20a therefore serves to temporarily store and indicate the traveland stationary times during the last expired 30 hours which the rotor 9 requires in order to complete one revolution.

In the illustrated exemplary embodiment, the afore-- mentioned drive connection is formed by a pinion 38, by means of whichthe belt drive arrangement 13 transmits the rotation of the tachometer shaft to the rotor 8 provided with internal teeth 8a, an intermediate gear 39 mounted at the plate 6, a pinion 40 with a shaft 41 which rotates in a bearing 42 fixedly retained at the plate 6 and at the lower end of which there is fixedly seated an iron disk 43 provided with teeth 43a forming bent-out and permanent magnetic poles,-a cable roller 44 with teeth 44a which are flexed in the direction of the teeth 43a, a nylon cord or cable 46 which is deflected about a stationary deflecting element and a lever 48 which is loaded by spring 47 (FIG. 3). The

lever 48 is mounted at a support element 49 which is secured at the region of the recesses lb, 20 at the housing portion 1. The control element 30 is constructed as a laterally bent-out flap or tab at such lever 48. The teeth 43a, 44a, form a magnetic slip coupling or clutch of conventional design which renders possible unhindered further rotation of the components 38, 8, 39, 41 and43 after carrying out actuation of the lever 48.

The previously mentioned electro-timer or clock mechanism which delivers current each second second to the coil 36 associated with the control element 29 (for recording the speed of the vehicle) advantageously also serves to deliver current pulses to a stepping or indexing motor serving to drive the rotor 9 so that such carries out a complete revolution in, for instance, 30 hours.

The support ring disks 2]., 22, 23, 24, 25 carry suitably calibrated scales at the sides thereof which face away from the housing portion 1. i

The housing portion 2 is provided with a central blindhole bore 50. into this blindhole bore 50 there can be inserted the connection portion of a bearing pin or plug 51, at which there is rotatably mounted the arms 52, 53 formed of transparent material of an evaluation device, by means of which, when necessary, there can be easily evaluated the indications delivered by the tongue rims in connection with the support rings and their scales, for instance the vehicle speed, as fully disclosed in the afore-mentioned patents incorporated herein by reference.

While there is shown and described present preferred embodiments of the invention, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto, but

may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for the continuous temporary storage of a number of measurement values, comprising a housing including a transparent housing portion, common revolving element, a plurality of concentric rims of radially elastic flexible tongues arranged at the common revolving element, one such concentric rim being provided for each measurement value, each tongue rim being formed at the periphery of a respective ringshaped disk of a thickness less than l/lO mm. and formed of elastic plastic, a support portion having a support surface provided for each tongue rim and fixedly seated at the transparent housing portion, each support surface extending along the path of the free tongue endsandbeing interrupted at one location of its periphery, a respective control element adjustable between two terminal positions provided at the region of the interruption of the associated support surface for each tongue rim, each said control element in its one terminal position bending-out the tongues which move past the interruption of the associated support element to force such to move in the bent condition above or below and past the associated support surface until again arriving at the interruption, whereas in the other terminal position such control element does not influence the tongues moving therepast, so that such tongues as desired can move above or below and past the associated support element, the improvement comprising:

a. said ring-shaped disks at which the rims of tongues are formed being reduced as regards their internal and external diameter in the manner of a row of steps, said ring-shaped disks being concentrically arranged and in axial spacing behind one another at an at least substantially truncated conicalshaped portion of the revolving element; said support portions comprising ring-shaped disks which are also reduced with respect to their internaland external diameter in the manner of a row of steps and being concentrically arranged and at an axial spacing behind one another at the inner surface of the transparent housing portion; and c. devices including the individual respective control elements accommodated in recesses at the inside of the transparent housing portion, each said recess being located at the region of the interruption of the associated ring-shaped disk forming the support portion.

mounting said arms, said arms together with said mounting pin being arranged at the outside of the transparent housing portion, said pin being mounted substantially coaxially with respect to the revolving element.

5. The apparatus as defined in claim 4, wherein said transparent housing portion has a blindhole bore, said pin together with the arms which are permanently mounted thereat being detachably insertable into the blindhole bore of the transparent housing portion. 

1. An apparatus for the continuous temporary storage of a number of measurement values, comprising a housing including a transparent housing portion, common revolving element, a plurality of concentric rims of radially elastic flexible tongues arranged at the common revolving element, one such concentric rim being provided for each measurement value, each tongue rim being formed at the periphery of a respective ring-shaped disk of a thickness less than 1/10 mm. and formed of elaStic plastic, a support portion having a support surface provided for each tongue rim and fixedly seated at the transparent housing portion, each support surface extending along the path of the free tongue ends and being interrupted at one location of its periphery, a respective control element adjustable between two terminal positions provided at the region of the interruption of the associated support surface for each tongue rim, each said control element in its one terminal position bending-out the tongues which move past the interruption of the associated support element to force such to move in the bent condition above or below and past the associated support surface until again arriving at the interruption, whereas in the other terminal position such control element does not influence the tongues moving therepast, so that such tongues as desired can move above or below and past the associated support element, the improvement comprising: a. said ring-shaped disks at which the rims of tongues are formed being reduced as regards their internal and external diameter in the manner of a row of steps, said ring-shaped disks being concentrically arranged and in axial spacing behind one another at an at least substantially truncated conicalshaped portion of the revolving element; b. said support portions comprising ring-shaped disks which are also reduced with respect to their internal- and external diameter in the manner of a row of steps and being concentrically arranged and at an axial spacing behind one another at the inner surface of the transparent housing portion; and c. devices including the individual respective control elements accommodated in recesses at the inside of the transparent housing portion, each said recess being located at the region of the interruption of the associated ring-shaped disk forming the support portion.
 2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the internal diameter of one such ring-shaped disk at which is formed the rim of tongues is substantially equal to the external diameter of the next smaller ring-shaped disk containing the rim of tongues.
 3. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the ring-shaped disks forming the support portions are each provided at their viewable side with a respective ring-shaped scale.
 4. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, further including an evaluation device incorporating arms formed of transparent material, a pin serving for mounting said arms, said arms together with said mounting pin being arranged at the outside of the transparent housing portion, said pin being mounted substantially coaxially with respect to the revolving element.
 5. The apparatus as defined in claim 4, wherein said transparent housing portion has a blindhole bore, said pin together with the arms which are permanently mounted thereat being detachably insertable into the blindhole bore of the transparent housing portion. 